Lame assed excuses by Turd Blossum on Romney's defeat.

By KARL ROVE

The GOP is undergoing the type of re-examination that occurs whenever a party loses. That useful exercise should be guided by facts. Here is some of what we know.

The media's postelection narrative is that Democrats won because of a demographic shift. There is some truth to that, but a more accurate description is that Democrats won in a smaller turnout by getting out more of their vote.

Turnout dropped by 7.9 million voters, falling to 123.6 million this year from 131.5 million in 2008. This is the first decline in a presidential election in 16 years. Only 51.3% of the voting-age population went to the polls.

While the Democratic "ground game" was effective, President Barack Obama received 90.1% of his 2008 total while Gov. Mitt Romney received 98.6% of Sen. John McCain's vote. Neither party generated a higher turnout nationally.

According to an early analysis of the 2012 election by the Associated Press, voter turnout in New York State looks to be down 15 percent from 2008, presumably as a result of the devastation wrought by Sandy.

With 99 percent of election districts reporting, 3,319,684 New Jerseyans voted in the race for the White House. Thatís a shade over 60 percent of the nearly 5.5 million registered voters, far below the record low for a presidential year ó 70 percent set in 2000, when George W. Bush ran against Vice President Al Gore.